RPI ties Cornell on Ryan Haggerty’s late goal

HAMILTON >> Most ties in college hockey are frustrating. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had one on Friday night that the Engineers may replay in their minds today, even though they tied the score with 54 seconds remaining in regulation play.

Ryan Haggerty banged in a rebound of a Mike Zalewski shot as the Engineers tallied an extra-attacker goal that gave them a 1-1 tie with Colgate.

The Engineers, who outshot the 18th-ranked Raiders 42-24 had a chance or two to win the game after Haggerty’s goal, then several more in overtime but had to settle for the deadlock.

The non-decision, which keeps RPI unbeaten (3-0-1) in its past four trips to Colgate’s Starr Rink, improved the seventh-place Engineers to 6-7-4 in ECAC Hockey and moved them to within one point of sixth-place Yale (7-7-3).

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Sophomore Milos Bubela won a crucial faceoff in the Colgate zone and got the puck back to Zalewski, who fired.

Colgate goaltender Charlie Finn stopped the puck but the rebound came to Haggerty. The big junior right winger banged in his league-leading 23rd goal of the season.

The Engineers, who beat Colgate (10-5-2, 14-11-2) by a 6-2 count earlier, outplayed the Raiders for most of Friday’s game. Thus, RPI coach Seth Appert, having come within 54 seconds of defeat, was hard-pressed to answer whether the deadlock was more frustrating, or the feeling was more one of relief.

“I don’t know ... we played well,” Appert said. “We found ourselves behind in the third period on the road and the guys responded, they kept poised and gave ourselves a chance to win.

“We had a ton of chances to tie the game,” Appert continued. “Then when we did, we had a ton of chances to win it.

“We did a lot of good things,” he added.” Just a strong team effort. Forty-two (shots on goal) is probably our season high. And we had a lot of pucks in the blue paint (offensively). Their goalie was outstanding.”

Finn notched 41 saves.

Colgate had won seven of its previous nine games.

Rensselaer (12-12-5 overall), nearly snuck home the game-winner with 19 seconds left, but the puck was ruled to have been frozen before crossing the goal line. Zalewski and freshman Jimmy DeVito then turned in the only two shots of the overtime session.

The game marked the 14th time the Engineers scored fewer than three goals. They are 1-11-2 in those games.

Appert was pleased, however, even if frustrated with the one standings point instead of two.

“We had a real strong commitment to play the right way and guys showed a lot of determination,” he said.

John Lidgett scored the Colgate goal at 15:48 of the first period, redirecting a shot by sophomore Kevin Lough through the legs of RPI junior netminder Scott Diebold for his first goal of the year.

Diebold had 23 saves.

“Scotty was very good, too,” Appert said. “The guys played well and we hope to keep it going (tonight).”